Checking tag



Aug. 7, 1928.

A. E. WRIGHT E AL CHECKING 1A0 Filed Aug. 11, 1926 INVENTORS 4; 8597: W916 1- ALB?#7' 6. WW6!- ATTORNEYS.

Patented Aug. 7, 1928.

UNITED STATES ALBERT E. WEIGHT AND ALBERT G. WRIGHT, OF SAN. FRANCISCO; CALIFORNIA.

onncxme TAG. 7

Application filed August 11, 1926. Serial No. 128,694.

This invention relates to a check or tag of the type for use in connection with baggage, parcel, automobile or like checking systems, and has for its principal object the provision of a check or tag which will serve to prevent fraud or theft at the time of reclaiming the article checked and which serves also as a positive means for preventing reuse of the tag or check after same has served its initial purpose.

It is well known that checks or tags of the well known type, while not being intended for re-use, are frequentlyire-used, often with a resulting pecuniary loss to the proprietor of a checkin station, system, garage or the like, the practice being for the attendant in charge, having once employed a particular tag for which a checking privilege charge had been made, to repeatedly use the same tag and at each instance to collect a fee from a subsequent customer, personally retaining the fee thus obtained, to the end that the proprietor is fraudulently made to suffer this loss. Such tags usually consist of two normally connected sections, each comprising identical numbers or other indicia so that one section can be attached to the article checked and the other section retained by the owner of the article as a means for identification when reclaiming the article. Persons acting as attendants in charge of checking systems can very easily continue re-using these tags, and in fact, it has been found that they have done so, accounting to the proprietor or owner of the checking system for the fee charged at the time of the first use of the tag, but

failing to account for subsequent fees obtained through re-use of the same tag. This can be done very easily because it is difiicult for the recipient of the identifying section of the tag to observe that it had been previously separated from the mating section and reused.

It accordingly follows that it is a very important object of our invention to provide means that will overcome the objections herein pointed out, and at the same time to so design and construct our improved tagthat use thereof will serve tominimize the possibility of mistakes in the handling of baggage or articles checked, and make negligible the possibility'of anyone but the lawful owner obtaining the baggage or article when withdrawing it from the custodian or bailee.

It is important that we place emphasis upon the fact that at least one section of our improved tag contains normally concealed identifylng data which corresponds with the data borne by another section of the tag,

and wherein said onefsection must be total destroyedor made unfit for further use when comparing the data thereon with that contained upon the said other section.

With the above and other objects in view, which will appear as the nature of themvention is better understood, the same consists in the improved construction and novel arrangement of parts which will hereinafter be fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawin s has been illustrated the referred form 0 the invention, it being, owever, understood that no limitations are necessarily made to the precise structural details therein exhibited, but that changes, alterations and modificae tions within the scope of the claims may be resorted to when desired. I

Figure 1 is a plan view of the tag unfolded.

card-board or the like, having what we will hereinafter refer to as a section 6, adapted to be attached to the article to be checked,

and a section 7 which we prefer to call the recipients section. These sections are normally integral or joined together; the line of demarkation 8 between-the sections being scored so that one section may be torn away from the other manually.

The recipients section 7 comprises two folds 9 and 10 which may be secured together in any suitable well-known manner,

preferably along. four marginal sides or edges. These marginal sides or edges are provided with an adhesive 11, whereby the said folds may be firmly joined together in pocket-like formation. The fold 9 substantially co-extensive with the fold l0 and preferably extends toward the section 6 to a point just below the scored line 8.

On one surface of the section (3 is a checking number or suitable indicia 12, which corresponds with similar indicia 13 upon a portion of the fold 10, and which said last named indicia is normally concealed by the fold 9, as will be observed on refercn e to Figures 2, 3 and 4 of the drawings. Therefore, when the tag is intact the only indicia visible therefrom is that contained upon the section 6. The section 6 is provided with suitable perforation 14 for the reception of a string or other well-known attachir means for securing said section to the baggage orarticle to'be checked. On the inner face of the fold 9 of the section 7 is a transfer surface 15, such as a coating of carbon, and on the outside face of the fold '9, in line with the coating 15, is a blank panel 16.

When using the tag for the purpose of checking an article, as is customary with well-known checking systems, the bag'mn'e master or attendant tears the section 6 in the section 7 along the line of deinarkation 8, and on attaching the section 6 to the artiole to be checked, he turns over the section 7 to the owner of the article. However, and before attaching the section 6 to the article, the recipient of the section 7 writes his signature or identifying mark at some point upon said section 6, preferably under the indicia l2. WVhen the recipient takes over the section 7 it will be observed that the indicia 13 is entirely invisible on account of the relationship of the fold 9 to the fold 10, and the fact that said folds are secured together along their marginal ed es. When the recipient wishes to relieve the bailee of the custody of the article checked, he hands over the section 7 to the bailee, who, first instructs the owner of the checked article to write his signature within the panel 16, to thereby cause the signature to be transferred on to the fold 10 above the indicia 13, as shown atA in Figure 5. The baggage master or bailee then rips apart the two folds 9 and 10 of the section 7 so that the fold l0 assumes approximately the form or shape shown in Figure 5, where it fully exposes or discloses the indicia 13 that corresponds with the indicia 12 of the mating section 6. In this manner it manifestly follows that after single use of the tag is made, it becomes impossible to re-use said tag. It further follows that when the section 7 is destroyed, and the indicia-bearing fold 10 thereof handed to the bailee, it becomes his duty to compare the signature of the owner of the article with the signature borne by the section 6. These two sections then may be retained by the baggage master as duplicate proofs that the article held in baihnent has been properly or legally returned to its lawful owner or bailor.

We claim:

A tag formed of a single strip of destructible material divided into three conjoined sections, two of the sections constituting the check portion of the tag and being foldable one upon the other, and having their marginal edges secured together throughout their entire lengths, the other section constituting the portion to be attached to the article, said tag having corresponding characters, one being disposed on the portion attachable to the article, while the other is hidden within the sealed sections of the check portion, said check portion being removable from the article portion and said character of the check portion being readable only when the check portion is mutilated.

ALBERT E. WRIGHT. ALBERT e. WRIGHT. 

